Art: Moving 1 by Caitlin Carter
ILLUSION
Shortly after having gone the rounds of his clients, Makoto parked his car in the parking lot of a convenience store beside a small park and bought a sandwich for his lunch and a pack of cigarettes. Blue hydrangea flowers in the park were swaying in a gentle breeze.
When he spotted an elderly woman seated on a bench in the park, the clothing she was wearing looked somewhat familiar, stirring up some nostalgia. As he puffed his cigarette, Makoto cast a casual glance at the woman. She was just staring into thin air, remaining still. “Is there any reason why she can’t stay home?’ Makoto wondered to himself. “But come to think of it, she can afford to spend her time just relaxing and doing nothing in particular,” he thought. On the other hand, he himself was one of those poor souls who toiled from early morning till late at night, with almost no rest. Naturally, he had so little time to spare. To top it all off, thanks to recent anti-smoking campaigns, he had been robbed of a place to relax and smoke, whether he was at home or at work. Fortunately, his wife, a strong-minded woman, efficiently performed household chores, and their two children, now in junior high school, had all grown up. Even so, Makoto still had to work hard to keep paying the mortgage on his home.
“I wonder how long I’ll have to keep at it like this,” he thought to himself. Stress and overwork had really hit home to him.
As his mother passed away when he was still in elementary school, Makoto, who was an only child, got married a year after he started working because he felt lonely. His father died in the same year. Come to think of it, he had been busy for the last ten-odd years, as if being chased by something.
His cell phone rang. He had just paid his visit to a section chief of one company, but this client called him to come back as he wanted to discuss some other project. Makoto hurried back to his car. The issue was somewhat complicated, and their talk had gone somewhere at last after two hours. Then he found himself again in the park next to the convenience store. As he remembered he had skipped lunch, he sat on the bench in the park, with the sandwich he had bought earlier in his hand.
“Oh, this is the bench on which that woman was seated.” As he nibbled his sandwich, he looked around him. Someone was seated on the bench on the other side of the park, across from the swing. For some reason Makoto’s heart skipped a beat. When he eyed her closely, she was the elderly woman he had seen almost two hours earlier. She looked familiar, but he didn’t remember where he had met her before. “Who is she?” As he wondered to himself, he stared at her, hiding his gaze behind the posts of the swing.
Before long some object, perhaps a handkerchief, fell from her hand. She was seated still, apparently unaware of dropping something. After Makoto swallowed the remains of his sandwich, he walked toward the woman. He picked the handkerchief, held it out to her, and said in a whisper, “Excuse me. You dropped this.”
“Thank you very much.” The woman was still staring with her hollow eyes.
“Are you not feeling well?” He didn’t know exactly why, but he asked in a polite manner.
The woman let out a deep sigh and asked back, “Do I look ill? Why are you asking?”
“You have been here for a long time, so I thought you were unwell or something. But I should have minded my own business. I couldn’t help myself. I’m like this because of my job. I’m sorry.”
Then her face brightened up suddenly. “No, please don’t apologize. Actually, I suffered a severe illness a long time ago, when my son was still small.”
“Is that so? Is he a grown-up now?”
“Yes, he’s married with two children. But I haven’t yet met my grandchildren.”
“That’s awful. You son should be more considerate. Where does he live?”
The woman flashed a smile and mentioned an address, which was the same as Makoto’s.
“That’s where I live!” As soon as he said these words, the woman vanished, and a gust of wind swept across the park, liberated by a spell of fine weather in the rainy season. There remained only the bench covered with dust.
“Her face looked familiar. That’s right. She’s my mother. Maybe what I saw was her illusion,” he thought.
Come to think of it, he had never visited her grave because he had been busy every day. He hardly ever told his children about their grandmother. “That’s why she told me she had never met her grandchildren.”
“What an illusion I had seen!” Makoto found this very strange. He then remembered the words his psychology professor told him when he was in college.
“An illusion is an escape from overwork” That was what he said.
Maybe he wanted his mother to hear his internal cry because of overwork. Thinking like this, he became very fond of the bench in one corner of the park.
About the author:
Yoshiro Takayasu lives in Togane, Chiba, where he edits Village Tsushin. He is the author of several poetry collections, including Mukashi mukashi and Jigenkyo. English translations of his fiction and poetry have appeared in The Broken Plate, Existere, The Dirty Goat, Metamorphoses, Nebo, and Visions International, among others.
I am currently working on obtaining a Master of Design degree at the Basel School of Design. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Visual Communications Design from Purdue University. While studying, I developed strong problem solving skills through a curriculums structured around design theory and that have fostered my ability to think conceptually in the areas of typography, visual identity, and composition.
Art: Moving 1 by Caitlin Carter
In the artist’s words:
Through my work experience, I have developed my practical design skills. In my most recent position as a freelance designer, I worked as the Head of Design for the start-up, S4FE. I developed the brand identity from the initial beginning stage, including the logo. I carried out the concept through the creation of the White Paper and Corporate Identity Guidelines. I also lead the design team by delegating the ways to incorporate the brand identity to the web designers. Previously to freelancing, I worked as an Online Flash Advertising Designer with Trailer Park Inc., where I earned production experience working within an in-house advertising agency that created full-scale digital campaigns for entertainment industry clients such as Disney, Sony Pictures Animation, TNT, LOGO, and SHO. I also created flash banners for Toshiba and Keystone online ad campaigns, as well as After Effects X-Men banners. Prior to working at Trailer Park, I was employed as a Graphic Designer with Discovery Communications, where I created print and digital media design work for Discovery’s family of brands, including TLC, ID, and Science. When I was given the project of creating the 2012 One Sheets for Domestic Distribution, I was recognized for my creativity, attention to detail, and ability to create strong page-layouts. Before working at Discovery, I was employed as a Digital Media Designer with Gannett Company Inc., where I fine-tuned my skills in the Adobe Creative Suite. My day to day job requirements included Flash and InDesign online advertisements. I have also completed an internship at MTV Networks, which gave me the opportunity to work with a team of talented designers to create content for MTVIggy.com. My Visual Communications Design studies, professional background as a graphic designer in the entertainment industry, self-initiated conceptual art projects and photography make me an ideal candidate to feature in your publication. Being a featured artist would enhance my future, and more importantly would foster my growth as an independent artist seeking the truth.